Black Farmers Collective

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
825059908
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2020, Form 990-N 2019
Location
Seattle, WA, USA
Phone
2067131391
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Computer Science

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,065,821
Expenses
$750,899
Assets
$1,188,710
Liabilities
$48,246

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • CAMERON STEINBACK (President)

Highest reported compensation

  • RAYMOND WILLIAMS (MANAGING DIRECT): $61,667 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Black Farmers Collective exists to improve the health of communities through urban gardens and farming.

What it reported doing in 2025

Community engagement: Offered Saturday community farm days for volunteers; Thursday education learning days; hosted community events, lunch and Celebrating Earth Day; distributed free food to Yesler residents at community events. Supported development of community food hub. Creating a local farm small business support. Education: Hosted workshops for community; hosted youth summer experience with Yesler summerprogram; visits by local K-12 and higher educational; i-Urban teen farm school sessions at Small Axe Farm; SU engineering ADA; SU business school project; Soiltesting continues.Leadership development: Hosted Earth Corp staff; farm manager joins RVC leadership program. Staff spoke a many community events. Professional Development for staff.Vegetable distribution: Free vegetables to Yesler community events: donations to Clean Greens and Free Food and Bird Bar Place for All food pantries; sold at Delridge (ACHD), and University Farmers Market.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 61% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 56
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 64
  • Sustainability: 65
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 47%; rating input score 47
  • Program expense ratio: 66.1%; rating input score 66
  • Fundraising efficiency: $41.88 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 1 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 14
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 29.5%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.58; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 8.2%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 22.9% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 33.2% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 37.8% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 47% of revenue deployed · 66.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 4 board members independent · 1 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $497K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $62K · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 47/100.
  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 6 not reported.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 57/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 42/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 46/100.